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Copyright Modernization Act: Bill C-32

Bill C-32 has been “tabled”, or introduced into the legislature. Now it will go through the process of becoming law.

Or Not. Hopefully not.

As expected, Bill C-32 appears to grant Canadians the ability to make personal use copies of their own property. And surprisingly fair dealing has been expanded.

The irony of course is that the law is not about modernizing copyright at all, it is about turning back the hands of time to protect the outdated but oh so profitable business models beloved of the large American Media corporations. I have to ask myself why our government would pander to them when this course of action is clearly in opposition to what Canadians want.

The problem is that the law does the worst possible thing: it allows digital locks explicit supremacy. Which means DRM over rides everything else. Because if passed, this law will make it illegal to circumvent DRM. Even though the law gives you the right to make a personal use back up of a movie or a game that you have legally purchased, you won’t legally be able to do so if there is DRM. If your digital media is something that is in the public domain (meaning IP that pre-dates Mickey Mouse, or alternatively IP that has been licensed directly into the public domain) you still will not be able to legally make copies if either the device or the media have DRM on it.

Here are some links to articles that are covering this issue. If an politicians are reading, I’d encourage them to read the comments on the articles more than the articles themselves to get an idea of how Canadians feel about this.

This negates the “gift” of being allowed to copy or format shift our own legally purchased property.
Personally I think Professor Geist is rather too optimistic, but as always he makes available a good translation of the legalese that will be used to choke Canada. The Canadian Copyright Bill: Flawed But Fixable

Canadians need to complain. Not to the Conservatives; their agenda is clear.
(And in fact Mr. Moore’s admonition to wait for the copyright bill before mobilizing against it has in fact proved to be disingenuous.)

[P.S.: One of the byproducts of laws like this one that have been playing out in the UK (Digital Economy Act) and the USA (DMCA) has been the rampant often specious lawsuits which often have no merit, but can be very profitable when used to extort people into settling them from fear. We can assume that this is one of the things Canadian will have to look forward to as well.